Organizing and decluttering the homestead

[Beekissed]

Thought I'd start a dedicated thread to the practice of making homesteading life easier through decluttering, organizing and generally keeping things on the homestead where you can use them and find them easily.

In today's world it's become common place for people to joke about being a hoarder, but it's not really funny at all~massive and overall hoarding and the clutter that ensues from it is a drain on one's resources in many ways~financially, emotionally, and physically. If you can't find something and really need to use it, folks often go out and buy another one...it's just not good sense to have several of the same item mounting up over the years and you can't find any of them.

Emotionally it's stressful to have a growing lack of space to store things, being unable to find things when you need them and to have to look a the chaos every time you go into that space. It gets overwhelming and people often become depressed over it. Homesteading is hard work but it gets much, much harder when you can't even find your tools.

That stress can affect one physically, not to mention the danger of having to dig through clutter to find something and getting injured when things fall, when a snake bites you, when you get cut or punctured by something you didn't know was there when you reached in your hand.

Feel free to post here about your organizational efforts on the homestead, whether it be in the outside realm or the inside, in pantries and cupboards. It's all our work zone and that needs to be efficient and organized to get the work done properly. It's incredible how much time is lost in a day while one is trying to locate a certain tool or material to complete a job. Not funny and that all adds up over the year to a lot of wasted time and stress.

I'm a fan of ergonomics and have found that paying attention to the ergonomics on a place can make your life much, much easier and anyone having to replace you on any given day and do your chores finds it much easier also.


Ergonomics~
At its simplest definition ergonomics, it literally means the science of work. So ergonomists, i.e. the practitioners of ergonomics, study work, how work is done and how to work better.

It is the attempt to make work better that ergonomics becomes so useful. And that is also where making things comfortable and efficient comes into play.

 

[tortoise]

I have been cleaning my basement today! Was just going to be clearing off DH's workbench for a Valentine's Day gift for him. (He's the frugal one and complains if I buy him a gift he didn't pick out.) I got carried away and have nearly half the basement done. Filled the wood cart and stoked the furnace so he doesn't have to when he gets home from work. 💗 Plan is to paint kids' handprints on his workbench if we have time,

 

[Beekissed]

When you start sorting and cleaning and find just how many buckets you actually own.... And these are only the buckets we store in the shed...we've got 4-5 smaller water and feed buckets down at the house.

Created a handy storage for bucket lids out of an old apple basket that's too old and fragile for anything else...

After....

I was pleased to find I had a whole shelf of space for things later on when I bring my canning stuff back up to the shed for the season.

Found full wren's nests in those tool totes! Had to empty those tubs all out, clean them and replace the tools.

.....and done!!! Putting my hands on everything in there refreshes my memory of where I put things. The blaze orange you see all over the boxes and tubs are duct tape labels where I wrote the contents of each container. This helps Mom and also me when we are searching for smaller items.

Now...the cabinets on the back side of the shed, where we keep hardware of all kinds, are in need of cleaning, sorting and storing where we can see at a glance where all that different hardware is and be able to access it. Last year we meant to do it but forgot to. That is a fiddly, tedious job of sorting through various boxes, jars, bags, etc. to find the different screws, nails, staples, clamps, washers, etc. and putting them into proper storage.

For now I'm just tickled pink about getting this job done, as the rest of the work year hinges on it....finding tools throughout the year for various jobs will now be a breeze, as will keeping them organized and replacing them in their proper place.

I thank God for this beautiful day we had, for good help and for the strength to get this all done...couldn't have done it without His helping me get through it!

 

[Lazy Gardener]

One can never have too many screws, nuts, bolts, hinges, and other hardware. I keep a paint tray on the corner of one of the shop work benches and toss the screws in that. Have a bin system for nuts and bolts, and a covered tote for hinges and other hardware. I have a couple jars of screws in the house, so I don't need to run to the shop when working in the house.

 

[Beekissed]

Today was epic, as my grandgirl , Aliza, would say. The farm dump that has been in evidence back in the woods for the past 25+ yrs was cleaned up today. That place had been bugging me ever since I moved back here with Mom, but even I added to it each time we cleaned out the shed and house, which didn't feel good at all.

Took two truckloads and a trailer load to the dump and have another truck and trailer load out in the driveway, waiting to go to the dump tomorrow. The only thing left back there are a few things we will actually use on the farm eventually~a few pieces of tin, an old garden hose, many push in stakes, odds and ends of metal pipe, a few old tires and a little bike that I'm going to steal the tires from and then put into Joel's trash.

I dragged a big 10 ft skid pallet loaded with sheets of ancient tin roofing and concrete blocks, from out of the weeds, back to that site so I can set up a pallet shed for storing these remaining items up off the ground and out of the weather. Will drag three more of these huge pallets back there to implement this storage solution, as well as two smaller ones as end caps. We'll still have junk storage, which is pretty much essential for any farm or homestead, but now it will be hung or stacked neatly in this shelter, easily accessed and safe for man and beast.

No more places for hens to hide and lay eggs that the wildlife eat....but the increase in brush piles from timbering will just fill that gap, so not a complete solution for that. But it will eliminate places for mosquitoes to breed, as all that junk held water in various receptacles.

I can't begin to tell you how good this makes me feel and I've been thanking God for this all day....for the beautiful weather, for Mom and son Eli's help, for a successful work day with no one getting injured...well...not freshly injured. I have a shoulder in a spasm and Eli's tricky knee is hurting him, but that's old stuff and not to be blamed on the work done today. All that broken glass, rusty wires and other rusty, jagged metal was just an accident waiting to happen but God kept us safe throughout. Hallelujah!!!!

Now we can safely run sheep in that paddock without any of them getting injured on anything. I'll be raking the whole site, burning old wood and leaves, then sifting the ashes for hardware and trashing that as well.

It's been a GOOD day!!! I LOVE work days like this....I'm tired, hurting, dirty... and completely and totally overjoyed!

 

[Beekissed]

Took the final load in this morning....total junk removed from the land shocked me, as it just didn't look like it weighed that much. Came to just over a ton of junk! Feels like it was removed from my shoulders, I tell you!

Lord willing, we'll never get to that point again in our time here. In the past 9 yrs I've systematically decluttered the folks' land, house and shed and will continue to do so until we have a very streamlined, minimalist as we can get it system, while still having stores of scrap lumber and other items that can be used for creating solutions here.

Currently logging the land to remove overly large trees needing harvested and all the pines, which have shallow roots and are constantly falling down. That will create a HUGE mess, but one we can deal with to create firewood and chip mulch for use here on the land. When that is finally cleaned up, the land will finally have some measure of order and the thinning of the trees will help create more diversity of food in the forest.

 

[wyoDreamer]

Just gotta remember to put it back when you are done with it. That is DH's biggest problem. I got yelled at yesterday because I put the drill back in wrong place ... it seems I put it back where I picked it up from and that is not where it belongs.

 

[Beekissed]

Hi all. I just couldn't resist this subject. I hope you all don't mind me just joining in

Absolutely not! Join in and even feel free to go off topic....it's called good conversation!

As @CLSranch said, we could all use some decluttering in our lives, both of material things but also of emotional, mental, physical and even spiritual things. Especially now, at this most strange time in the world, wherein there is so much division, loss of freedom in the US and the looming future of what is to come, a person needs to get as free as they can of all things that encumber us.

I found out how freeing the letting go of stuff was way back in the 90s first and I knew it felt good, but it would take me 2 more times after that, of purging most of everything I owned~due to moving here and there~before I realized that God was trying to tell me something. If it feels so good to get rid of it, why am I clinging so hard to it? Does it feel good to have to clean it up, rearrange it, or otherwise care or walk around all this stuff? No? Then why, oh why, do I continue to do so?

If I moved tomorrow, the only thing I'd be taking along of my own personal possessions from this particular home would all fit into the back of my car. All of it. I'm living at my mother's home, taking care of her and her place right now, so all that stuff you saw in that shed? Only a few small bags of winter clothing in there are mine....the rest is mother's or Eli's.

In my own room, I have 2 ft of space for clothing to hang in my closet(remodeled the room and intentionally designed it thusly)....usually all I own to wear, both winter and summer, will fit into that space and it's just this year that I had winter clothing so much that I had to store it in the shed. I need to get back to that 2 ft of space only.

Decluttering my life in all ways is an ongoing and, ultimately, rewarding process. I see America drowning in stuff and so many people overwhelmed by it all, losing space in their garage, home, table, countertops that they would otherwise use freely but are unable to do so due to stuff. It saddens me and I know how they feel....it adds to their depression, anxiety and even affects their overall health.

 

[Beekissed]

I never did get back to that last work surface for decluttering and organizing in the shed.....until yesterday. I finally hauled off all the little items we thought we would clean up and sell...took them to the rehab store and donated them. Refilled all the gas cans that needed refilling and replaced them to the gas can shelf.

Then, I tackled sorting and putting away thousands of pieces of hardware...literally...thousands. All my bolts, nuts, various sizes and types of screws, hinges, clips, cotters, bushings, fittings, and various and sundry other stray hardware that have been around since my Dad's time here are now in small drawers in wall mounted organizers I picked up at a yardsale for a few bucks...these things are from the 50s and they show it. Took me from around 1 pm until almost dark to get it all lined out and the benches brushed off, floor and shed porch swept out. Wish I had remembered a before and after pic, because it was quite a dramatic transformation!

Now I can find all my washers, bolts, screws and various hardware in labeled little drawers or bins. Work surfaces can be used once again. All my grains in the shed were stored properly, as it seems I have a little mouse problem....am going to make myself a bucket trap for that here soon, as the poisons don't seem to be working.

Cardboard boxes were burned, metal trash disposed of and the empty trash can relined with industrial bagging. The building was returned to a neat, working order....finally...and now it's time to do the outside of the shed, which is a huge MESS where I store lumber and wood scraps, T posts, tools, rolls of wire, etc. I can smell a DIY project coming on....

 

[Beekissed]

Emptied and tore down the large cabinets my Dad put on the back of the shed nigh 25 yrs ago....they are HEAVY! Kind of a sadness doing that...seems like we've been tearing down a lot of Dad's old construction these past few years and I can see Dad in every one of them~porches, steps, outhouse, etc. When Dad built something, he built it to stay there for his lifetime. LONG nails, plenty of them, and sturdy construction.

In those cabinets are such a hodge podge of things to use for home maintenance that I'll be sorting it out for some time....spent the evening sorting out hardware of all kinds. Between this new store and the stores I've already sorted out, I'm starting to feel RICH! I have scads of washers of all sizes, rubber washers/gaskets of all sizes, screws, nails, bolts and nuts of all sizes and kinds, various pipe straps and hose clamps and odds and ends of numerous other things.

Once organized, we shouldn't have to be buying new hardware for a good while, as we have both new and used hardware aplenty here for all the DIY projects I could do this year.

So, for now, the back of the shed is completely stripped of all junk and stuff. Need to burn that cabinet and various sundry wood scraps tomorrow, along with two very large wagon sides that are ancient and rotten. Might also burn some pallets we've had for many, many years and are just in tatters now. Going to the feed store this week and will pick up a few much stronger/better pallets to replenish our pallet stores.

Getting things done that have been waiting for 10-25 yrs to be done properly feels very cleansing and uplifting! Those cabinets and all this junk on the back of the shed was just a haven for bees, mice nests and odd places for the chickens to lay eggs. It will feel good to get that all gone and replace it with a setup that will discourage such shenanigans.